War is a tragedy, and we will not allow such a tragedy to happen again in this country, declared President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, addressing the 16th National War Heroes Commemoration Ceremony held this afternoon (19) at the War Heroes Memorial in Battaramulla. In a speech that spanned remembrance, rebuke, and reflection, the President urged the nation to confront its past with honesty and build a future free of conflict, inequality, and manipulation.
“Parents, you sacrificed your children, wives, and husbands to end the war in this motherland. You are great mothers. You are great wives. But what should be the final result?” the President asked. “The highest justice that can be done for your child, your husband, your friend, and your relative is to establish peace in this country.”
He emphasized that paying respect before the monument is more than ritual it is a pledge. “It means swearing a message that we are ready to create a harmonious society of brotherhood and love instead of a society of hatred, without allowing conflict to arise again in the country.”
President Dissanayake reminded the nation that for decades, Sri Lanka suffered through a war that brought immense destruction. The commemoration, he said, was both a tribute and a moment of reckoning not just with the past but with what the country must still become. He called on all ethnic communities Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher, and Malay to work in unity to ensure another war never happens again.
He paid tribute to thousands of fallen soldiers whose names are engraved on the memorial plaques and acknowledged those who became permanently disabled. The President noted the quiet suffering of their families, the mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, and children who still mourn and search for names on the stone hoping for answers, carrying grief and pride in equal measure.
But he didn’t stop at remembrance. He pressed further.
“War is a tragedy. War is destruction. You who fought know this better than anyone,” he said, making it clear that the true purpose of the war was peace—not war itself. The President painted a painful portrait of how both the North and South are still built on the ruins of the war, with families everywhere carrying the weight of loss.
Even now, he said, parents in the North and South hold up faded photographs of missing sons and daughters. “To every parent, their child is a gem. Whether Sinhala or Tamil, grief speaks the same language.”
The President issued a warning: Sri Lanka’s future must not be one of recycled hatred. “Our generation fought wars. But the next must not. Let us give our children a land without conflict, without suspicion, without anger and hate.”
He insisted that history is not just a tale to be archived, but a living lesson. “What is history telling us with this tragedy?” he asked. “It tells us that this must never happen again. That our future should not be a war zone.”
Recalling his visit earlier that morning to soldiers disabled in combat, he described the sorrow of meeting men who’ve lived on hospital beds since 1988 and 1996, unable to express their pain in words only through tears. “Isn’t it a harmonious state that we should hand over to future generations?” he asked, visibly moved.
He condemned how wars, racism, and extremism have been weaponized time and again by those in power to protect their own interests. “These wars were never natural,” he said. “They were deliberate. Orchestrated. Used to cover up crimes and cling to power.”
He referred explicitly to the imprisonment of Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, asserting that it was never about justice or the law but raw political power. “There was no valid reason for him to be in prison for over two and a half years. He and I were close then. I know what happened. It was power not justice that locked him away.”
The President went on to describe how ordinary children from villages, whose families had nothing to do with the causes of war, became its victims. “War is destruction,” he reiterated. “But still, there are those who treat it like a pleasure—those who dream of it, those who glorify it.”
He then took aim at a dangerous narrative creeping back into public discourse: the idea that peace is weakness and reconciliation is betrayal. “No. Peace is not betrayal. Peace is courage. Reconciliation is humanity.”
The President spoke passionately about the global cost of war, asking, “What has the world gained from all these wars? Victory? No. Only destruction.” He condemned those who “turn war into a great river of blood to protect their power and enjoy swimming in it.”
He then addressed the armed forces directly. “The greatest hope of every officer holding a weapon is that he never has to use it. That is the hope of a civilised nation. But some want to fire at any moment. We must say clearly: No more. The gun must not be raised against another man.”
He rejected the idea of surrendering to fear or extremism. “We must surrender not to power, but to humanity. To truth. To justice.”
The President then declared that Sri Lanka must become a nation that has learned from history. “We have shed enough blood,” he said. “Enough tears. If we’ve truly learned from that, then never again.”
He reminded the nation that “no one entered the war to glorify war. Everyone fought hoping for peace. The war is over. Now the work begins to build peace. Otherwise, we are only half-victors.”
In an emotional appeal, he asked every soldier, every officer, to become ambassadors for peace, to complete what was started. “To the mothers, fathers, and wives you are great. But the final result you deserve is peace. That is the greatest justice for your loved ones.”
He warned that racism is once again being stirred for power. “Nothing else. Just power. We are being led into the same trap again.”
On the subject of national independence, President Dissanayake did not mince words. “The war ended. But are we truly free?” he asked. “When it rains, 4,900 homes are at risk of landslide. Are we safe? If a war breaks out somewhere else, our economy trembles. Are we sovereign?”
He pointed to the country’s economic collapse as proof that real sovereignty is yet to be won. “We are a nation that has lost our economic strength. So what’s the plan? It’s not slogans it’s transformation.”
He called for the full establishment of rule of law, a state free from crime, drugs, hatred, and conflict. “Only then will we have true freedom. Not freedom on paper. Real, living, breathing sovereignty.”
With heartfelt emotion, he ended his speech with a vision of what could be. “You and I we love this motherland. We love its people. We want it to be the best. We want our children to live with dignity. And for that, the foundation is peace and reconciliation.”
He urged everyone to carry the spirit of those memorialised in stone not to fight but to rebuild. “Let their courage inspire a new fight. Not with guns, but with conviction. Not for power, but for peace.”
“Let’s finish what the war couldn’t. Let’s win the peace.”
